JEDDAH — An enthusiastic group of graphic design students showcased their final works with pride at the Graphic Design Senior Exhibition at Dar Al-Hekma University here on Monday and Tuesday. Through the exhibition, 47 young women graduates proofed their readiness to enter the professional design industry with fresh ideas and eagerness. This year's exhibition differs from previous years, as the senior students got an entire year to work on the projects on display. “In the past, what the students would display is just part of their portfolio,” explained Cordula Peters, program director for Visual Communication. “Since this year, we introduced a new course in senior year, which is called Capstone Project.” In this course, students work for an entire year on one project. “They spend one semester doing all the theory behind it – doing the research, writing a thesis about the project, putting together a proper proposal, and so on. The second semester, they take all the research and everything they came up with and turn it into an actual project,” Peters said. The projects on display cover an immense variety of topics, from tips to eat healthy throughout the year to a booklet on businesses set up through social media, and from a clear ground plan of the Holy Mosque in Makkah to a guide on how to Arabize business logos. According to Peters, the students were free to choose whatever topic they were interested in. “The point of this is really that they kind of find themselves as designers – who they are, how they want to be seen as designers, what type of design they are interested in.” The result is that some students focused on typography, others on information design and maps, and some on fine art design. This year's senior Graphic Design students constitute the largest group of graduates the Visual Communication department at Dar Al-Hekma has ever seen since its first batch in 2006. It is also the first group to graduate from Dar Al-Hekma since it obtained university status in January this year.
